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Primary Challenges for Orange County Democrats

Friday was the deadline for candidates to file to run in the June 8th Primary Election. Here is the run down on a few of the more high profile Orange County races.

In the Fourth District Supervisor contest to fill the unexpired term of recently elected Assemblyman Chris Norby, we have a full field of six candidates, three Republicans, and three Democrats in this technically non-partisan contest. On the Republican side there is Fullerton City Councilman Shawn Nelson, Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu, and Businessman Richard Faher. On the Democratic side we haveÂ Anaheim City Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, La Habra City Councilwoman Rose Espinoza, and Buena Park Mayor Art Brown.

Second and Fifth District Supervisors John Moorlach and Patricia Bates did not draw challengers for their seats so they will be elected by default and will not be on the ballot. The County Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom and District Attorney Tony RackauckasÂ did not draw a challengers either. Since Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street decided not to run, the filing period has been extended to March 17th. Currently there are three candidates in this race, Patrick Desmond, Shari Freidenrich, and Gary Costa.

Hugh Nguyen

Hugh Nguyen is challenging incumbent Tom Daly for the Clerk-Recorder seat. Mr. Nguyen is a manager in the office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors. He has selected the designation of Assistant Orange County Clerk. Unfortunately for Nguyen, he may not be able to use that ballot designation. First, there is no such position classification in the County, much less the in the Clerk of the Board’s office. The designation used by a candidate must describe their primary occupation. Tom Daly is the Orange County Clerk, and the Orange County Recorder, hence the title combination Clerk-Recorder. Use of such a designation implies that Mr. Nguyen is an Assistant to Mr. Daly, the County Clerk. That is of course, untrue. We’ll let you know how things fall out on this.

In the 68th Assembly DistrictÂ contest for the Democratic Party nomination, we have Phu Nguyen facing Joseph Dovinh. We have covered both candidates extensively in the past several weeks. Mr. Dovinh is a close personal friend of the current 68th Assemblyman, and GOP stalwart, Van Tran. Dovinh also was a supporter of John McCain in the 2008 Presidential election. Phu Nguyen on the other hand, was a leader in the Vietnamese community working to elect President Barack Obama and has already picked up the endorsements of California and Orange County Democratic leaders including Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

In the 70th Assembly District we have perennial candidate Mike Glover who has run three times for the seat, and Melissa Fox seeking the Democratic Party nomination. Fox is picking up considerable support, while there is apparently no institutional support for Mr. Glover.

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3 comments for “Primary Challenges for Orange County Democrats”

Eric Cooper

March 14, 2010 at 8:57 pm

Is Michael Williamson (42nd Congressional District) really a Democrat? From his views on the issues that are listed on his website he sounds like a disgruntled GOP/Libertarian type who didn’t have the guts to face Gary Miller on his own ballot

Dan Chmielewski

March 15, 2010 at 9:19 am

Michael Glover should have focused on paying off previous campaign debt rather than challenge Melissa.

I’m surprised Rose Espinosa stayed in the race despite her anemic fundraising. Art Brown is also way behind. Yet I don’t see either of them splitting the Democratic vote that way the three Republican challengers will for the 4th distrcit supes race.